Miami Dolphins

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) – No one is under the illusion that Savannah State has any chance of victory against Florida State Saturday, but Las Vegas odds makers have put a point spread on the game that no one in history has seen before.

Las Vegas has made Florida State a 70.5 point favorite over Savannah State on Saturday. Yes, you read that right, 70.5 points. The reasoning behind Vegas’ move comes from several factors.

First, Savannah State won just two games last season and was not a top school in the Football Championship Subdivision, which is one level down from the level Florida State plays in called the Football Bowl Subdivision. Overall, Savannah State is just 4-72 in recent history and have lost seven of their last 11 games by at least 30 points.

Second, Savannah State is coming off an 84-0 shellacking at the hands of Oklahoma State. The Cowboys aren’t ranked as high as Florida State in the Top 25. The Oklahoma State victory was one of the largest margins of victory in recent history in college football.

(FYI, the largest margin of victory in college football history is from an early 20th century game between Georgia Tech and Cumberland University. Georgia Tech won the game 222-0 without ever gaining a first down, instead scoring every time they touched the ball)

Savannah State head coach Steve Davenport said after the Oklahoma State mauling that the score could have been much worse if Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy hadn’t called off the dogs in the second half of the game.

Finally, Florida State won its first game of the year over a decent Murray State team by a score of 69-3. Murray State is a far superior team to Savannah State in the FCS, yet FSU had no trouble running up the score on the Racers.

“It was an interesting line to make,” said Mike Colbert of Las Vegas-based Cantor Gambling. “If Florida State wanted to play its top guys the entire game, they could probably win by a hundred. But some guesswork comes in with a number like this. It’s not purely about statistics and numbers. How long will they play their top guys? Will they run the score up? Quite frankly, I expect Florida State to play (the starters) for at least the first half.”

So what does Savannah State get out of the game by playing Florida State? The school will receive approximately $475,000 as payment for the game, which combined with the first game against Oklahoma State will give the Tigers just less than $1 million for getting mauled in two straight games.

Florida State will essentially get a glorified scrimmage to put the final tweaks into the game plan for Atlantic Coast Conference play which starts up next Saturday against Wake Forest.